Occam's Razor presents a simple rule to discard the unnecessary when theorizing. It is a form of intellectual minimalism and while not infallible, the rule helps keep theories more rational and simple based only on reliable information at hand and the most likely outcomes based on it.

Often it is simplified to:

"When there are multiple explanations, chose the simplest one"

or

"The simplest explanation is most likely correct"

However, here we will not apply the Razor to come up with any explanation about anything. We just use the same mindset of discarding and simplifying to help us in Self-Inquiry, in a more meditative sense. What is the simplest experience of our immediate reality we can possibly have without adding anything extra to it? When we apply the approach to our own everyday conscious experience in a relaxed and lucid way (Samatha/Vipassanā style), a curious thing happens... lets try it.

For full effect, begin in a relaxed, open and mindful state

Right here, and right now, discard all mind-activity that is unnecessary, including discarding the sense of a concrete notion of "self".

Don't worry, "you" can always be re-imagined later.

An immediate sense of lightness and clarity ensues. Everything continues to function naturally even without a conceptually imagined self, does it not?

At the same time, the unnecessary sense of there actually being a "world" in which a self exists and events/objects occur, gets dropped. All concrete objects, events, and reference points go away naturally. A spacious awareness persists and brightens. There is natural rest in that awareness. Complete satisfaction in the moment.

Can the remaining spacious awareness that naturally rests, be ceased? Can anything more be cut away or denied?

Thoughts and distraction might come back, but again they can be cut, and the same awareness remains. The experience of which does not even depend on any concept of awareness, so that very concept of "there is awareness" can be dropped.

A particular thought may arise along the lines of: "But once the conceptual thoughts and sense of self come back, then the awareness is lost. Once the thoughts cease, then awareness is gained again".

But apply the Razor here once again, in a more experiential way. Keep discerning whether this is really what is experienced or whether this is just another thought based on conditioning and conventions, that can be dropped. Then cut away that thought and rest again in whatever remains. When that particular thought eventually begins to loosen its grip and be cut away, a truer thought that "awareness is always there in the background even when lost in thought" might replace it. But note that it too is another thought to be discarded (even if it is a more accurate stepping stone).

What else can be cut? Or in another way: what else has a tendency to arise unnecessarily?

Check again. There can be a subtle concept of: "awareness and the contents of awareness... that awareness is always the same but the contents of it still change". But how true is this? can this idea be discarded as well? It can. There is no need to draw extra conceptual lines or labels, apparent awareness and its apparent contents are naturally unified.

Truly what more can be cut? Notice that any explanations about it can always be cut away but the experience itself cannot,

Keep up gentle inquiry, observing and shaving away subtle concepts that arise. What's left is simply to be rested in, to be experienced in complete satisfaction...

🙏

I got this idea from this list of people posting their app defaults.

(🤓 = Self hosted)

• 💻 Desktop OS: Ubuntu
• 📱 Mobile OS: LineageOS
• 📂 Desktop Environment: GNOME
• ⌨️ Mobile Launcher: KISS
• 🌐 Browser: Firefox (Mobile: Fennec)
• 📑 Bookmarks: Nextcloud Bookmarks 🤓 (and Floccus browser extension)
• 💰 Personal Finance: PocketSmith
• ⏳ Invoicing and time tracking: Kimai 🤓
• 📮 Email Client: Thunderbird
• 📨 Email Host: Gmail, Zoho
• 🗨 Chat: Whatsapp, Messenger, Telegram, Discord
• ☁️ Cloud File Storage: Nextcloud 🤓
• 🌅 Photos: Google Photos and Nextcloud Memories 🤓
• 📚 eBooks: Kavita 🤓, Foliate and KOReader
• 🎧 Audiobooks: Libby and Audiobookshelf 🤓
• 🗺 Maps: Google maps
• 👨‍💻 IDE: VSCode
• 🧮 Terminal: Kitty and ddterm
• 🐚 Shell: Fish
• 🗣 Social Media: Mastodon
• 📺 Video and Music: Youtube Premium (FreeTube and NewPipe clients)
• 📝 Notes: Obsidian
• 🔐 Passwords: Bitwarden
• 🔑 Authenticator: Aegis
• 📸 Photo Editing: Darktable
• 🎨 Image Editing: Gimp
• 🎙 Podcasts: Podverse
• 📰 RSS: Miniflux 🤓
• 🔎 Search: SearxNG 🤓 and Kagi
• 📜 Office Documents: Nextcloud (Collabora) 🤓, Google docs and LibreOffice
• ✅ Tasks: tasks.org (synced to Nextcloud Tasks 🤓)
• 📢 Blog: Ghost 🤓
• 🌤️ Weather: omWeather

A friend of mine who has two very creative, boredom-free and impressive young children told me that a significant contributing factor to their brilliance was that he disallowed them any screen-time in the early years of their lives. He follows the philosophy of neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis who stresses that the first few years of a child's development are heavily influential, and passively watching screens early on can permanently stunt their mental development - a philosophy I too mostly agree with. Young minds need true human interaction in order to develop, not passive viewing.

So then why am I OK with my young 3 month old boy having some screen-time?...
It depends on what kind of screen time.

When people talk about screen-time today they typically mean:

• Some kind of centralized social media app
• Passive video watching videos
• Forum diving (Reddit etc) and doom-scrolling
• Often inflammatory anonymous text chat with strangers
• Free to play video-game (Games used to be a good challenge but honestly today they are mostly weak and addictive. "Players" mainly just watch a blabbering streamer play it for them)

All of it algorithmically fed, monitoring your every move, and constantly mutating itself to remain ever-addictive by delivering the stream of dopamine with less and less effort.

When I was a kid I spent hours on a PC but I did none of the above things. I actually spent most of the time on my PC being creative (OK I admit I also played a LOT of video-games but they were challenging ones which actually taught me team work and other soft skills!). Back in those days, none of the above actually existed the way they do now. The Internet of the time was not designed to suck in minds endlessly. Neither was tech in general designed like this.

So when I say "I'm OK with Screen time for my child", I am talking about quality screen-time. Just like spending real life "quality-time" is important, I'm more than happy for my child to spend "quality-time" in front of a PC. Being creative and learning useful things, but doing it in the way that I did as a child. Avoiding the predatory algorithms, inflammatory social-media and the excessive addiction of the modern Internet,

How can I achieve this for my child? In the early days it's easy to control what they see on the TV. With my 3 month old its mainly documentaries and fairly wholesome viewing (certainly none of the overly stimulating brain-less "kids shows" like Paw Patrol and Cocomelon). But at some point they are going to exposed to the full scale Internet on their own device. What then? Only allow them to use a locked down device allowing a limited range of services? This can be done via a device-wide DNS blocker or parental controls. But I would not want to rely on this heavy-handed approach.

A better way is to teach children good technology habits... which always begins with practicing what you preach.

As I already cultivate good technology habits personally and love sharing ideas with others, it should be easier to instill the same behaviors in my child. Teaching them about:

• The downsides of modern distracting tech and showing them wholesome alternatives.
• Wise-tech - ways to co-exist with big-tech and take advantage of them without falling prey to them.
• RSS - Curating and controlling their own feeds, instead of addictive algorithms.
• Blocking tracking, ads, recommendations and dark-patterns.
• Taking breaks and awareness of time spent.
• Advantages of FOSS, encryption, local-first software and self-hosting.

Then it's up to them to make up their own mind and decide what they truly value, that way I wont be telling them what to do for the rest of my life.

Secondly I think having plenty of quality real-life interaction is important to prevent them being sucked into "The Matrix" of heavily believing the online world is more important than the rich and direct reality in right in front of them. Learning true presence and calmness in the natural moment. Having a balance of active real-life hobbies, like hiking or cycling.

Thirdly, a related factor is steering children away from group-think and being a sheep. It's so easy for all of us, but particularly younger ones, to want to be doing, watching and using whatever "everyone else" is. Independent thinking and free-mindedness are lifelong traits that will keep them away from toxic tech and many other unwise mainstream things.

Just like teaching them healthy eating, self-care, and exercise habits, teaching children healthy technology habits is just as important. Its not necessarily the screen-time that's the issue, its the screen-content. At the end of the day we don't want them consuming so much "information junk-food" and ending up with unhealthy minds.

Teach them to use the tool but not become the tool.

I will start by saying that this routine has evolved over time and will no doubt continue to evolve along with my body. I have been consistently doing these most days for a couple years now. I'll also add that I have always been fairly lean, currently in my late 30s, and have a decent base level of fitness... but on the other-hand I spend way too much time sitting at a PC and have terrible posture, which I am hoping to correct in the long run by avoiding chair sitting and consistently doing small corrective exercises each day.

Why do I do this?

NOT to get fit nor lose weight, but simply to maintain my body.

The main goal is to have some consistent and simple daily exercises, focusing on reversing and avoiding: pain, atrophy, bad posture and functional issues caused by modernity. So far I found if I do this consistently, it is enough to keep me moving fluidly and enjoy my life and my active hobbies like trail running, hiking, snowboarding, biking, and rock climbing - without ever walking into a gym.

Now on to the details of my routine.

The Exercises

A. Primary (main)

1. At least 20 Pushups.
2. Wall angels and/or YTWL.
3. Some Downward dogs + Upward dogs.
4. About 30-50 Dead Bugs.

B. Secondary (optional)

1. A bunch of random resistance band pulls for my back and shoulders
2. Some variations of plank and bridges (two legs, one leg etc).
3. The first exercise lying on my side shown here for hip/lower back pain.
4. Some combination of Lunges and Squats, and sometimes Sideways squat-walk with a resistance band.
5. Spend a couple minutes in a deep squat.

C. Stretching

1. Finally, a bunch of fairly standard good-feeling stretches for my shoulders/back, hamstrings, calves and hips (I'll often do these stretches in the evening before sleeping).

Bear in mind the exact number of reps can vary based on how I am feeling, and I weigh under 60kg, so 20 pushups are not hard for me. Adjust accordingly.

I don't always do all of them each day either but the Primary Set A are main ones that I do most days (takes about 5 minutes), and I consider them the most important. This is just enough to quickly get my body going in the morning without breaking much of a sweat (but it still gets me ready for my daily cold shower!). On some days I will start digging into some of Secondary Set B which extends to about 15-20 minutes and I might just start to break a sweat. I'll often leave Stretching Set C till the evening before bed. But if I'm feeling up for it, I will do all 3 in one go.

In addition to this, I will usually go for a couple 5-10km Runs a week, and if I happen to run to the park across the road, I'll do a bunch of Pull-ups on the bars, and some fun Balancing tricks on the beams.

The rest of my day - avoiding what causes problems in the first place

I have a fairly holistic view of keeping the body energetic, well functioning and pain-free. As well as doing consistent light exercise, I also avoid the activities (or lack of) that cause the issues in the first place.

Primary is the issue of sitting on a chair for long periods. One way I avoid this is to replace chair-sitting time with floor-sitting time. I almost always do my work and use my PC while sitting on a floor cushion, at a desk about 30cm from the floor. I also recently built a small Japanese inspired folding dining table for eating and doing other activities on the floor. Combined with using a break timer, getting up to do regular movement, and avoiding over-absorbing distracting online content has helped my body a lot.

Follow me for future posts about my floor desk setup and the floor dining table I built.

Secondly I avoid is wearing overly cushioned shoes which cause bad posture, disconnection with the Earth and general disharmony in the body. I instead opt for minimalist footwear or bare-feet. I particularly like Vivobarefoot shoes (my cousin, a personal trainer and barefoot shoe enthusiast, happens to stock these in her Auckland store). I have been wearing minimalist/barefoot shoes for over a decade now and after working out all the kinks (honestly took a couple years), it has helped re-balance my body. I can't go back to wearing "normal" ones anymore.

Avoiding unwise use of the body and doing enough to maintain it goes hand in hand with the quality of our entire experience of life. I hope you all get some inspiration to develop your own consistent long term routine and healthy movement habits.

We can all do well to examine our own attitude when we sit down to meditate or during other regular spiritual practices, such as simple self-reflection during the day. Today I examined mine and this is what I reminded myself of.

Conducive attitudes

Practice with:

• Awareness. Bring light to every shadow.
• Patience. There is no rush because there is no time.
• Compassion. Be kind and don't get hung up on faults.
• Certainty. Allow the mind to be firm and established in Truth only - that which does not depend on anything else. Know that it is always possible at every moment, even if it does not immediately appear as such.
• Earnestness. Make practice important...
• Calmness. ... but not too important.

Un-conducive attitudes

Practice without:

• Doubt. It confuses the mind and disperses focus.
• Distraction. It wastes energy and prevents seeing things as they are.
• Judgement. Just observe rather than labeling good or bad, or thinking in terms of "improving yourself".
• Preaching. Others will find their way, focus on yourself and simply be their light.
• Perfectionism. There is no specific ideal way to be. There is really nothing to attain.

When you think you have "abandoned everything", you may feel you are left with the experience of the "non-dual", as if it was some kind of truth or supreme reality.  You may feel you are "in the moment" or being "here and now".

Beware of the subtle trap in this.

Who is that self being "in the moment"?
What is this "here and now" that is left?
Do they remain conceptual?

Avoid making it another "thing" to grasp onto.  Another subtle concept.  Another dependence.  Thinking "you" have attained a higher state, and therefore the ego creeps back in.  Thinking this is "your" escape from a seemingly otherwise negative experience of reality.  Remember that the path is one of dropping, not attaining.  And the key thing to drop is that very imagined "you" and any sense of ownership. While it can be initially very effective to use your sense of pleasure and happiness to motivate yourself on the spiritual path, at some point even all this pleasure and happiness will need to be let go of if the "you" is to truly dissolve.

Sure it is more comfortable to be in this "higher state" which is more detached and unaffected by the world.  This is in fact a great achievement in itself and some will stop there and at least not step backward.  But again, keep moving in the direction that there is nothing to achieve, let alone anybody to achieve it.

From another angle, how certain are you that this "higher self", "higher perspective" or special skill of directly experiencing the "non-dual" is truly imperturbable?  How certain are you that this is It?  Are you sure that you aren't holding onto this just because it is pleasurable?  Can you watch it without attachment to it?  Does any sense of ownership over the experience remain?

One can even develop a sense of worshiping this experience as a kind of God or labeling it as a good and wholesome experience.  These are more judgements and concepts.  You could also regard yourself as special or chosen, even in a subtle way.  You cant wait to tell everyone else about It and teach them the "truth".  These are all typical traps involved in chasing, clinging to, and owning the non-dual experience.  When you fall into cultivating self-owning pleasure, then self-owning displeasure (and more importantly a self-owning reaction to it) will always arise at some later stage.  As I have discussed elsewhere:

The extent to which I indulge in pleasure is equally the extent to which I will indulge in pain. That is unavoidable.

To avoid these traps, we must look at the experience without attachment and without ownership.  See it as a way to gain true freedom from self, rather than a way for the self to be free from discomfort or for the self to experience lasting pleasure.  Truly contemplate and see it as clearly as possible, and rest there.

Notice that even though the experience is pleasurable, if there is a sense of ownership of this, then a subtle disturbance creeps in.  Notice the subtle increase in the sense of equanimity, when you cultivate the attitude of non-ownership.  Remain vigilant for any chasing, craving or clinging.  Trust in the practice wholeheartedly and you will naturally cultivate an attitude of true detachment and ego-freedom, not just grasping pleasure and freedom from discomfort.

Another helpful pointer is to notice whether there is a feeling of having attained or gained something.  As I previously  mentioned, the spiritual path is one of letting go, dropping, and loss - culminating in the loss of the illusory self, including any identification with anything whatsoever.  Whatever we use as a raft to reach the other shore must be eventually dropped.

It is truly a stepping into the Unknown, beyond pleasure and displeasure.

Eventually you will find that there is nobody taking any step, and the imagined path simply walks itself... and one day it may finally walk away from the very "you".

By now most of you have probably heard about Reddit blackout/exodus and you may also have heard about Lemmy, a Fediverse alternative to Reddit, which many have flocked to.

So like many people right now, I wanted to check out Lemmy as a viable alternative to Reddit, and also, like many existing Mastodon users I'm thinking:

Do I need to create a new Lemmy account on another instance, or can I just use my existing Mastodon account to do everything on Lemmy?

As an avid Fediverse user, my primary identity is on a Mastodon server.  Since Lemmy uses ActivityPub, I thought that maybe I can just cross post into Lemmy (just like I would cross post into another Mastodon instance) despite it being a quite different type of app (basically like Fediverse Reddit vs Fediverse Twitter).

It turns out... It works!!

Yes, it's possible to upvote, post, reply and follow anything on Lemmy, through my existing Mastodon account, using the same cross posting method you would between different Mastodon instances, with a few notes:

• Mastodon Favorites are counted as Lemmy Upvotes (however Mastodon Boosts do NOT seem to count).
• Creating a Mastodon post while mentioning a Lemmy community/topic will create a discussion post within the Lemmy Community, with the first line of the Mastodon post becoming the discussion post's title.

Performing Actions on Lemmy via Mastodon

Here are some longer instructions for various actions:

TIP: When you copy and paste links, always use the "Direct Link" from the OP's instance, as demonstrated in the above image.

• Browsing Lemmy groups (called Communities): works without logging in, directly on the Lemmy instance.
• Replying to a Lemmy post/comment: Get the direct link to the Lemmy post/comment using its "rainbow Fediverse" link button in Lemmy, paste it into your logged in Mastodon instance search bar, and then press Reply and post your reply.
• Upvote a post or comment: I again get the direct link to the Lemmy discussion or comment and paste into my Mastodon instance search bar, then I click the Mastodon favorite button (note that this might not be as private as using an actual Lemmy account to upvote).
• Follow a Lemmy account, post or community: again just get its Lemmy direct link, paste into your Mastodon search field and follow.  Lemmy groups automatically boost any new posts so you will see them appear in your Mastodon feed.
• Post a new discussion to a group: you simply create a new post in Mastodon, and @ mention the Lemmy group you want to post into, where the first line will become the title of the post. An example (although I suggest doing the @ mention on its own line at the end of the post so you don't mess up the post title). An easy way is to again paste the direct link to the group in Mastodon, and go to that groups profile and click the 3 dots menu and click Mention.  If you attach an image or link to the post, it appears as the posts thumbnail and can be viewed by clicking on it in the post on Lemmy.

Limitations:

• Downvotes are not possible via Mastodon, as far as I can tell.
• Images attached to replies to posts don't seem to show up in Lemmy, even though they do work when attached to an original post in a community.  One workaround is to make the reply then get a direct link to the image, go back end edit the reply, pasting that link into its text so people viewing it on Lemmy can still access the image (but this way there is no preview of it, as there is in Mastodon).
• Can't follow group posts only.  When you follow a group/community in Lemmy you see all of the posts and replies made in that group (via automatic boosts), which can quickly clutter up your feed. I can't find a simple way to only show new posts and not all the replies.  So now I mainly browse Lemmy on its own instance page and only drop into Mastodon to make replies and upvotes.

A bit Clunky? This should improve soon...

Currently it requires copy and pasting links, the same as manually cross-posting between Mastodon instances when you don't have a browser extension like FediAct installed.  Extensions like FediAct embed buttons into foreign Mastodon pages which invisibly automates the copy/pasting for a completely seemless experience across instances.

Rest assured, given the latest spike in interest in Lemmy, it is likely the community will respond with a similar browser extension which will eliminate the manual copy/paste steps by embedding buttons into Lemmy pages.  Stay tuned, as I will update this post once I find an extension to simplify things.

A peak experience is an often ineffable or "magical" experience that may occur for some people during deep spiritual practice (e.g. meditation), or sometimes spontaneously during normal daily activity or during sleep.  They can also be induced by psychedelic substances.  Such experiences could include:

• General feeling of complete release, euphoria, psychedelic patterns, visions or bright lights (Nimitta)
• Out of Body Experiences (OBE) or astral projection
• Experience of egoless-ness, completely dissolving of self, "nothingness" or floating in a void
• Dream-like experiences, including meeting deceased people or a "deity"
• Lucid dreams
• Experiences that feel "more real than real life"

They are typically intense but short lasting (hence a "peak"), however the subtle effects on your experience. or shifts in your perspectives on life, can last much longer.

Personally I don't count Samadhi, nor continuous Jnana (nor the simple continuous joy and clarity during a good meditation) as peak experiences, because these last much longer, being states of peace and clarity, free of conceptual bounds such as ego.  For one who is very good at meditation these can arise reliably and continue for some time.  Peak experiences are much more unpredictable and often unexpected.

Also notice I haven't used words like "bliss" and "pleasure" even though that can sometimes be part of it, its certainly not the primary aspect.  True peak spiritual experiences tend to leave you with a sense of awe, profundity, insight, deeper meaning or a glimpse into a reality rather different than you thought.  This isn't an "orgasm", nor are you "getting high" or "tripping out"... you already know how to make those happen if you are just chasing pleasure.

Some people have peak experiences spontaneously, particularly those who are very dedicated to long term spiritual practice, and who practice genuinely with little expectation.  Others may have it the first time they meditate, but never again, even though they spend huge effort trying to recreate that first time to no avail.  Others never do.

Rest assured that whatever you get or don't get, it is always for the best.  Having a peak spiritual experience isn't the goal of spirituality.

The benefits and the pitfalls

I have had a number of peak experiences in the past and they are almost always very unexpected.  However, I have very few these days.  I no longer put a huge emphasis on them as I did when I was a beginner, and therefore I wont bother to describe or glorify mine here.

Such experiences can be a double edge sword.  On one hand they can be good motivation, and a sign you are on the right track, especially for beginners or those with some doubts (although there are much better signs like just generally feeling happier and less agitated by things).  They can also leave you with lasting shifts in perspective (often very subtle), such as simply taking life less seriously having seen a deeper reality which felt more real than what you thought "real life".  Though this will wear off quickly if you just go back to your everyday activity without using this perspective shift to deepen your practice and further explore your inner self.

However, peak spiritual experiences can also be a distraction.  They can inflate the ego.  They can inspire false goals, convince people that seeking such experiences or pleasures is what their practice is all about.  A long spiral of "experience chasing" can ensue, typically misguiding a seeker for some time.  They can induce clinging to a special magical experience.  In the worst cases they can cause addiction and attachment, particularly if induced through certain psychedelic substances (although many of these substances have anti-addiction properties, some do not).

There are plenty of people out there (I used to one of them) that will tell you that you must have some sort of profound peak experience in order to even begin to understand the true nature of reality or the "non-dual".  Just as there are plenty who think you must have an IRL guru with true "lineage" for any real spiritual growth. I personally disagree with both, and really its your ability to embody spirituality in your thoughts, speech and action, that is more important, as well as your ability to consistently see the ordinary experience directly in front of you clearly.  Anything you do to improve those is great, whether its simply consistent meditation practice, selfless acts, reading or listening to spriritual resources, having a guru, or indeed: chasing peak experiences.  If you are consistently meditating, looking into your own self and studying what brings your peace, then I think you are better off than someone who had one mushroom trip where they exploded into a million pieces and now thinks they are the local spiritual authority.

Wisely dealing with peak experiences and potential paths to having one

It is best not to expect or force peak experiences, nor to deliberately recreate past peak experiences.  If they do spontaneously arise, take them as a small sign and motivation to keep going. Reflect on them later, but do not get distracted by them.  Bragging about them may take you a step backwards.  I would also like to point out that in my personal experience, taking shortcuts (substances) to achieve peak experiences were not as powerful and beneficial as those that spontaneously occurred from within during normal meditation or yogic practices (such as lucid dreaming or Yoga Nidra).  I also think that if you try substances, then you really need an intention for personal growth and facing your inner self, rather than just wanting to escape or trip out.  The "set and setting" is important.

My theory is that in order to more easily have a peak experience, it can help to be first sitting in a mild emotional low.  Yes, that means you actually want to be in an kind of chronic slightly unsatisfactory place to begin with.  Most people at the beginning of their spiritual path will actually have this, whether they notice it or not, as this is usually what brings a person to spirituality in the first place. Suffering is a teacher.  I no longer live in the chronic-unsatisfactory zone of life so therefore I don't really have emotional lows from which to easily produce an emotional peak.  They go hand in hand.

Therefore while wishing for a magical peak experience, you may also be unwittingly wishing for an unsatisfactory emotional low in life!  The age old saying: Be careful what you wish for.  If you do find yourself in a low point of life, maybe a "high" experience will help in the short term to get back on your feet.  Just don't ride that roller-coaster up and down too long if you are looking for lasting relief and true growth.

Equanimity, not pleasure, is the true goal of a spiritual path.

Having said all this, if you are interested in exploring peak experiences, my tip is to look wholeheartedly and patiently into Yoga Nidra, breath-work, and Lucid dreaming.  These tend to produce interesting results with lasting positive effects, if you are genuine and patient.  Even if you do not get peak experiences from them, they are worth sticking to long term as the benefits can be great either way.  I don't promote psychedelic substances even though they are interesting, mainly because I found their effects weaker and mainly superficial in comparison, and they tend to promote a typical "quick fix" consumerist mindset which is actually ineffective long term.  Let alone the possibility of forming attachment and addiction to them.

Should you chase them?

I don't discourage experience chasing, I only make people aware that it is a thing so they know that at some point they can stop when they feel tired of it.  I myself knowingly chased special experiences and "relaxation", and I feel it was necessary, if only to make me tired enough to relax and truly "come home".  I eventually realize what was right here all along and will never come or go, and nobody could just tell me that, I had to go through the process of chasing my tail first.  It isn't the only way to get to peace but it is one legitimate way, as long as you are aware enough to know when to stop or let it go if it doesn't work out.  So go right ahead chasing with full confidence, but use the experiences wisely if you have one, and remember the pitfalls!

Introduction and Tips

A few of these pointers are somewhat theoretical and wordy to help open the thinking mind to the blind-spot of a more direct reality unmediated by concepts.  Some are practical exercises to be experienced in order to familiarize with the experience of stillness.  Others, including short quotes, are simple yet profound and can bring a receptive mind directly to a deeper peace.

They can be read any time, but particularly early morning, before or during meditation sessions, or before sleep.

While there is no specific goal, you can decide your own one if you want.  Maybe you just want to be free of mental and physical activity, in order to find peace.  One approach could be to "follow the peace", that is: become increasingly sensitive to peace and let it guide you deeper into the non-dual experience.  Either way, I would like to re-iterate: Don't hold tightly to theoretical explanations, allow the mind to settle into peace by letting the notion of the theory wash over you and do its work.

An individual minds' unique conditioning means sometimes we each need to find just the right angle to come at it... so focus on what resonates, leave what does not, or return to it later.

Once again, this isn't about figuring out what theory or concept is right or wrong.  I might as well tell you right now, every conceptual theory is untrue, in the absolute sense, because the absolute truth we are coming to experience is not a conceptual one.  As soon as we open our mouths or write down words, we are already making a compromise away from absolute truth, and towards conceptual abstraction. That does not mean theories are bad, they are merely tools to help us get to back the absolute truth.  Like a raft to get across the river to the other shore, we do not carry the heavy raft with us after crossing.

The more skilled your meditation and the more you move toward a spiritually conducive lifestyle, the more powerful these pointers become.

This article will be continuously updated, and as usual, all feedback and comments welcome‌‌🙏

Consciousness and Raw Experience as it is

Settle quietly and become aware that there appears to be a conscious experience.  Notice that this consciousness-unified raw sensory experience (before mental concepts are overlaid) can be described as:

• Lucid
• Clear
• Expansive
• Direct
• Naked
• Immediate
• Vivid
• Limpid
• Seamless
• Open
• Infinitely spacious
• Uninterrupted
• Present

Or via negativa:

• Without definitive self, other, world, nor any other labels nor "things"
• Without definitive past, present, future, nor "time"
• Without definitive beginning, end, nor "events"
• Without definitive origin, cause, nor "effects"
• Without definitive center, edge, nor "location"
• Without separation, connection, nor distance
• Without fixation, recollection, nor anticipation
• Without good, bad nor equal; no better nor worse
• Without bias, will, nor choice
• Without observer, nor observed
• Without a doer, nor anything being done
• Without clear reference point

Don't simply agree because it sounds "good" or "right", nor conceptualize these points.  Truly experience them for yourself, by calmly noticing the nature of your experience, without thinking about it.

If you observe disagreement (or excessively automatic agreement), confusion, fogginess or mental conflict on any point, it is perfectly fine, but do relax and check again whether there are concepts involved. If so, try to place them down momentarily, then feel for any increase in experiential clarity.

Calmly observe. Completely unmediated by concepts or thoughts.

Noticing the space rather than the "thing"

Become very interested and calmly observant of the space in which "things" appear:

• The silence between sounds
• The empty space in which all objects appear
• The stillness between thoughts
• The feeling of the skin on your hand when it doesn't touch anything.

This may feel pointless at first, too "boring" or even impossible.  Keep at it.  You will gradually break through.  The greatest peace and timeless reality are so simple, obvious and ever-present that we simply miss it, like the air in front of our face.  Practice detecting it more deeply and precisely.  Return back to it frequently.  The mental habit of fear and distraction will gradually come to rest like a speeding steam engine once its furnace eventually cools when no more coal is added.  The vast majority of fear and distraction is eventually seen to be a conditioned habit, not fixed instinct at all.

Practice paying attention to the various types of "space" without being distracted or caught up in that which appears within the "space" (i.e. appearances of sounds, objects, thoughts, and sensations etc themselves).  Our normal mind places too much importance on the appearances which form distractions moving the mind away from peace which has a more infinite "space-like" quality.

Exercise: Noticing all-pervading space

The analogy of "all-pervading space" is useful to help internalize non-dualism.

Take a look at your hand.  Notice that it appears to occupy some space.  Move it a few inches to the left or right, but keep noticing the space where it was previously located a moment before it moved.  There now appears to be empty space in the location where the hand was previously located.

Now move the hand back to its original location again.  Now the same empty space is occupied by the hand again.  Where did the empty space go?  It did not go anywhere.  It was always there and is still there now.  Empty space cradling the hand.  Look around you.

Notice the shift in perspective that empty space occupies all objects and non-objects, it pervades everything - rather than the other way around that objects occupy space that the mind tends to arbitrarily default to.  Space never goes away and is never created.  This is the timeless aspect of reality which goes unnoticed in our daily activity, but by connecting with this emptiness that pervades all, we find peace and objective clarity.  This is always available and requires nothing.  Upon finding it, simply rest there, non-conceptually.

Awareness is not affected by Mental concepts within it

It may appear as if; the above described unified consciousness is somehow taken away, weakened or muddied by thoughts and mental activity.  This is not the case.  It would be like saying physical empty space is ruined by objects passing through it.  The empty space is completely untouched and in fact still exists even when the object occupies it.

This space is never created nor destroyed, and it is always actually unified and continuously connected (non-separate) with everything that could be contained with it.  Consciousness is like this, though it can be considered a mental space in which everything (including the perception of physical space, objects, events, thoughts and emotions) occurs.  At the same time consciousness is unified with everything that occurs within it.

Hence "non-dual" - in essence, there are never two or more, and technically there isn't even "one" either.  Neither one, nor more than one, nor none.‌‌
Reality is Beyond Conceptual.

Any thoughts, distractions and concepts simply appear within the infinite space of consciousness then dissolve back into it.  Often the very act of observing is enough for a thought to vanish.  This can be very clearly observed by anyone.

Self-evident Consciousness

It is self-evident that Consciousness ‘IS’.  It requires no theory or belief.  No thinking, concepts or ideas.  Concepts about it can take us away from noticing it, but they can also guide us back if used wisely, then finally let go of.  Like the analogy of the raft used to cross a river which we discard after reaching the other shore.  Use the tools but do not allow them to become fetters by always carrying them around.  We can still form a myriad of ideas about what is self-evident, and communicate these ideas.  But it is best not to confuse ideas about what Is, with what actually Is.

WHO is watching, thinking and doing?

This is not a question to answer with words or concepts.  Explore it experientially.

It is not found by searching, but by simply relaxing into that which is watching, that which is thinking, or that which is doing.  Notice the doing, the watching, and the thinking itself... then gently use your attention to trace back to its source.  Finally, trace back to the source of that very "attention" itself.  Notice any improvement in mind-clarity, and rest there without trying to "figure it out" conceptually.

Is there a "who", an "I" or a clear "self" at all? or is there just awareness of an experience with nothing between nor "outside" it?  If there is nothing between the awareness and what is experienced then are these really just one and the same?  Check thoroughly. Again, explore all this experientially rather than figuring it out conceptually.

Where is consciousness when the body is asleep, unconscious or dead?

This is a very common doubt or confusion that arises.  The question first assumes that consciousness comes and goes and then asks where it goes during apparent sleep or death of a body.

Where is consciousness right now while the body is apparently awake?  Can it be pinpointed?  Can you find its property of existing or not existing? Have you ever had a immediate experience of consciousness coming or going? Have you experienced its beginning or end first-hand?  The truth is, you have not and neither has anyone else.

The idea that consciousness (aka awareness) "goes away" and "comes back" is a perspective relative to the body and its senses.  The body falls asleep.  The body is born and the body dies.  All senses and perceptions (including the sense of time, objects and events - which in turn construct the very notion of something coming and going) are related to the body, and these are what seem to get created by birth and what seems to go away at death.  Awareness itself doesn't.

Everything comes and goes in awareness. Everything except... awareness itself.

Advanced: Don't make IT into a "thing"

The linked post below is one is for those looking to take things further than simple practical relief from common everyday disturbances.

Endgame non-attachment

One the non-duelist looking to take things further than simple practical relief from common everyday disturbances.

Vijay Prema - The Mindful TechnologistVijay Prema

Quotes from Vijay

The moment is an eternity sandwiched between two instants.

Immediate reality is always available.

Its all just whatever

Quotes of the masters

Thoughts arise temporarily in response to what you see and hear; they haven't any real existence of their own.  - Bankei

You are not what you know.   - Nisargadatta

Don't give up. Surrender.   - Unknown

What is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.   - Quran

You are the universe experiencing itself.   - Alan Watts

Eternity has only one moment - this one.  - Unknown

When you reach the other shore, there is no need to carry the raft with you.    - Unknown

The Godhead is ‘unknowable’; neither being, nor non-being    - Unknown

The real is what resists symbolization absolutely   - Jacques Lacan

It is the ordinary confused mind that perceives sensory appearances to be something other than oneself    - Longchenpa

Don’t recall.  Let go of what has passed.‌‌Don’t imagine.  Let go of what may come.‌‌Don’t think.  Let go of what is happening now.‌‌Don’t examine.  Don’t try to figure anything out.‌‌Don’t control.  Don’t try to make anything happen.‌‌Rest.  Relax, right now, and rest.‌‌‌‌    - Tilopa (trans. Ken McLeod)

Don't pursue the past and don't invite the future.‌‌‌‌Simply rest naturally in the naked ordinary mind of the immediate present without trying to correct or "replace" it.‌‌‌‌If you rest like that, your mind-essence is clear and expansive, vivid and naked, without any concerns about thought or recollection, joy or pain.‌‌‌‌That is awareness (rigpa).‌‌‌‌    - Khenpo Gangshar

"Nothing happens next. This is it"    - Gahan Wilson

"Liberation is never of the person, it is always from the person"    - Nisargadatta

Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points"    - D.T. Suzuki

More Resources

Favorite Tibetan Buddhist Pith Instructions

My phone is a 6 year old Galaxy S8. It has cracks in every corner of the screen glass. It still works just fine, and these days I use my phone less than ever before, thanks to my path of digital minimalism, so I don't really mind.

But a few things about it did bother me. It ran a tad slow and Samsung only updated it up to Android 9. My RSS reader app is no longer supported on Android versions less than 10. It was also low on internal space, partially due to a whole suite of bloatware I never use, that cannot be removed. Not to mention the fact that I have very little control over this device compared with my laptop running Ubuntu, the way its locked down and God knows what its doing behind my back.

The device just did not sit right, regarding my philosophy of Wise-tech.

So I have known about LineageOS, since way back when it was called Cyanogenmod, as a potential path to greater tech-freedom on Android devices. But I was always reluctant to install it on my phone as I thought it would have bugs or be missing functionality, or some apps might not work (Google, banking apps etc). Or worst case it would completely brick my phone. Plus the one-off hassle of carefully following the long and somewhat vague steps to even install it, let alone back up and restore my data.

My phone was so old and worn that I didn't mind bricking it, so as a last resort to breathe new life into it, I decided to give LineageOS a shot, along with installing GApps to support the proprietary Google backend and avoid loosing any functionality.

Was it worth it?

Well I can safely say.. BIG YES, LineageOS on Galaxy S8 blew away my expectations! 😎

It runs blazing fast and responsive compared to before, even with all the same apps installed. There is no added bloatware taking up space, freeing many gigabytes of onboard storage, all without missing any functionality that I actually need. Full device encryption, cameras quality, audio, banking apps, Bluetooth, fingerprint unlock etc all working. Slightly improved battery life, and most impressively - greatly improved speed.

This six year old device is now as fluid as a new flagship model, on the latest version of Android with all the latest features. Now I feel like I truly own this device, and all the downsides I mentioned earlier are suddenly gone.

I really should have done this earlier.

It makes be feel like Samsungs software updates are a kind of monetization conspiracy designed to eventually cripple a phone in terms of speed, storage space and battery life. Then suddenly they just stop updating, forcing users to buy a new phone to get the latest features, space and speed. The cycle repeats. Samsung stock price perpetually rises. Typical line-goes-up economics.

I think its also safe to say that I would very likely never buy another Android device, unless it supports LineageOS out of the box.

Summary of steps

1. Download correct LineageOS ROM and GApps, and copy to SD card or USB stick inserted into device.
2. Backup ALL data (it WILL be erased!).
3. Unlock bootloader, Remove Google and Samsung accounts, and factory reset data.
4. Install TWRP recovery program.
5. Boot into TWRP and install LineageOS ROM and GApps.

NOTE: You DO NOT need to root your device (e.g. using Magisk) at any stage to install LineageOS. Rooting allows a user to modify the protected system files on the device, which allows advanced functionality but may reduce security and break certain sensitive apps like banking apps.

Full steps taken

UPDATE: For many devices, there is now a much easier way to install LineageOS and other custom ROMs, via the Open Android Installer app. Though it does not support the Galaxy S8, check whether your phone is supported by that app before resorting to manual steps.

DISCLAIMER: Pay attention and understand each step yourself. Dont follow blindly. I am not responsible for any problems with my instructions or any damage to your device! This applies specifically to Samsung Galaxy S8 (SM-G950F) but the process is similar to most devices.

Installation is doable.. but not for the faint of heart. Be calm and make sure you have a few hours spare to go without your phone working. There are many steps and there is a high chance you will screw something up and start again. You will also need to BACK UP all your data because everything will get erased.

1. Firstly do your research, check other ROM users comments for any known issues and when you are confident, download the latest LineageOS custom ROM file for your device and copy it to an SD card (alternatively use a USB stick if you can use it with your device via an adapter or hub). In some cases your device will be officially supported and available directly from Lineage, but in many cases (including for my Galaxy S8) you will need to search XDA forums to see if someone made an unofficial one. MAKE SURE it works with your specific device variant by matching actual model numbers.
2. Also download the latest GApps (I used NikGApps Core) to the same SD card if you want to use any apps that use Google services, but make sure its compatible with the specific Android version of the ROM you want to flash (in my case Android 12 a.k.a Android S).
3. Insert SD into the device.
4. BACKUP All data on the device! All apps and internal storage will be lost. Removable SD card will be OK though. Most apps with an online login probably don't need a backup as you just reinstall the app and login again. Local apps without logins, including many open source ones, might require an export to file, or they may also be backed up by Android services depending on the app (I wouldn't count on this, I still have no idea how the Google backup and restore for Android even works!). I prefer to go through each of my local apps and export data to files in individually named folders on the SD card, so I know for sure. Make sure you have the any private-keys/codes/pass-phrases you need to restore self-custody services like crypto wallets. Make sure you have a way to restore your TOTP authentication app, or move all the MFA codes to another device or a Yubikey.
5. Charge phone to 100% and try to keep it charged.
6. REMOVE Google account and Samsung account from the device in order to disable FRP.
7. Turn on Unlock Bootloader in Developer Settings (you may need to turn on Developer Mode first).
8. Disable Android device encryption if you have it turned on.
9. Do a factory reset of your device (required to clear data partition).
10. Flash TWRP to your device - this is a "Recovery program" that your phone can boot into to perform low level maintenance such as flashing a new ROM or GApps (the built-in recovery program on most devices is very limited and cannot flash a LineageOS ROM). The method to do this varies based on your phone. I used the Windows program called Odin, while the device was in flash mode. Another option for Linux is Heimdall (install heimdall-flash apt package in Ubuntu). It can be tricky to get into the flash upload screen on your device, in order for Odin to work. For my S8 the steps were: With device powered off, hold Bixby + vol_Down + power to turn on, then quickly press vol_Up when you see a blue screen. It should show FRP LOCK: OFF and OEM LOCK: OFF if you correctly followed step 6 and 7 above. Then plug the device into the PC and use Odin to flash TWRP (or follow your device-specific TWRP flash steps). If you have issues here, read the instructions on the phone screen CAREFULLY so that you chose the right option, as they can be confusing.
11. Tricky step for first entry into TWRP for Galaxy S8: Once Odin flash is successful, remove USB cable, then hold vol_Down + power button until screen goes off then quickly release and hold Bixby + vol_Up + power buttons to enter TWRP recovery for the first time. If you fail to be quick enough, redo Odin flash step 10 above and then try again. Your device might have different steps for this, or maybe you can skip if the device goes directly into TWRP, please check for yourself.
12. Now you should be in TWRP 💪. Much of the hard work is done. Swipe to allow modification to system files, because this is needed to flash a custom ROM
13. Click Install button.
14. Click Add zip and choose the LineageOS ROM file from the SD card.
15. Click Add zip again and choose the Gapps zip file if you want Gapps.
16. Continue to Install the ROM files.
17. After success, suggest to Wipe Cache/dalvik if it's the first time installing a LineageOS ROM on this device.
18. Reboot > System. If it asks for a password at this stage, its probably because you did not factory reset the data or disable encryption at the beginning, which means you can type any password, which will just fail and reboot. If the reboot fails to wipe data, go back into TWRP with Bixby + vol_Up + power and chose Wipe > Format Data. After that is successful, re-install your GApps zip and Reboot > System. Now it should just boot without asking for password.
19. Congratulations! You now have LineageOS installed 🎉. Log in, reinstall your apps and restore your backed up data.

Updating LineageOS

Assuming you already have it installed, at some point you will get a notification to install an OS update. If you want to install it, download then press install and the phone should automatically reboot into TWRP and install the update.

If anything fails, or you find the phone does not fully boot anymore (boot loop), don't panic. The usual way to fix this problem is simply to power off the device, download the latest GApps and ROM file onto the SD card, insert the card, then boot in TWRP (Hold Bixby + vol_Up + power). Repeat steps 12-16 above to install the zip files, then roboot. This should fix the issues with failure to boot.

More Tips and Troubleshooting

Some additional tips in case you encounter issues (Thanks to Brian for this):

• For GApps, there are reports of FlameGApps causing bootloops. NikGApps and BitGApps are reported to work.
• If you get in a boot loop and cannot turn off the device, press volume-down+bixby+power button until a green-ish screen appears with two options: volume-up and volume-down. Press volume-down, and very quickly press and hold volume-up+bixby+power button. That will cause a reboot to occur and it will go into TWRP.
• If Google Play does not have internet after installing, make sure it has access to your networks: in the app details (where you can clear cache etc, not in the app itself) make sure it has access to your network.
• It's recommended to install a browser, like Chrome or Firefox, and set it as the default system browser, as otherwise app-uri's (uri that opens an app after login for example) may not work.
• Custom ROMs only work with the Exynos CPU version of Galaxy S8.
  To identify which S8 CPU you have:
  SM-G950/955U = Snapdragon 835
  SM-G950/955F = Exynos 8895
  and -FD is exynos with dual sim support
• To identify which ROM download you need (dreamlte vs dream2lte):
  dreamlte: Kernel for the Samsung Galaxy S8
  dream2lte: Kernel for the Samsung Galaxy S8+

This is my special sauerkraut recipe that I have been making for many years.  As well as traditional cabbage, I add carrot and capsicum plus dill seeds and leaves.  You can also experiment with adding fine sliced garlic and/or chili peppers for an Asian twist.

I make it in a batch of up to 1.5kg using a 3L Kilner Fermentation set.  This can also be quite an economical recipe as you turn a few dollars worth of ingredients into ~$50 fresh store-bought sauerkraut in about 30 minutes.  Plus it tastes way better IMO.  It lasts pretty well in the fridge for a couple months.

Don't be disheartened if it goes moldy on your first try.  Give it another shot with better hygene practices and a better jar/crock setup with airlock.  First two times I got a bit of mold by but I have done it over 15 times after that and never had an issue after consistently cleaning everything before use.  Zapping the jar for 1 minute in the microwave then letting it cool can help.

The thickness of vegetable slicing, frementation time/temperature and the amount of pounding can be adjusted based on what you prefer: chunkiness vs sourness vs crunchiness.

Equipment

• Large sharp knife and cutting board
• Large bowl (I use a very large stainless steel bowl)
• Accurate scales
• Wooden spoon or other bashing tool
• Large fermentation jar with airlock (e.g. Kilner 3L) or fermentation crock, or do an internet search for other ideas with existing jars
• Spare jars/containers for storage in fridge

Ingredients

• 1 to 1.5kg thinly sliced/grated fresh veges. I typically use: sliced cabbage (~70%), grated carrot, sliced capsicum (1 medium or 0.5 large).
• 20g salt for every 1kg sliced/grated veges (i.e. total salt concentration = 2%)
• Other Flavorings (optional):
  1.5 tsp dried dill leaf tips
  1 tsp Dill seeds or Ajwain (Carom) seeds

Method

1. Clean all items (and preferably sterilize with a short zap in the microwave + cool down) before use where possible, and ensure veges are clean with bad bits removed before preparing.  This helps eliminate the chance of mold.
2. Measure weight of sliced veges + flavorings, then add them to an extra-large mixing bowl.  Make sure you note down the weight of ingredients accurately.
3. Measure and add the correct amount of salt based on measurement in step 2.  As listed, it should be 20g salt per 1kg veges/flavouring ingredients.
4. Thoroughly mix and pound ingredients in bowl with wooden spoon for a few minutes. Ingredients will soften, reduce in volume, and become juicy. You can experiment here: pound less for a crunchy kraut, more for a softer one.
5. Transfer veges and juice into clean/sterilized fermentation jar (or other fermentation container) and install lid and airlock as per jar instructions.
6. Leave in a cupboard or suitable warm/dark place for 1-2 weeks or more depending on preference.  The longer you leave it, the more sour it gets, so you can experiement.  It is also highly dependent on temperature, in cold winter conditions, it can take longer. Usually its about 1 week for me when the average room temperature is 23°C.  Suggest checking every couple days to observe fermentation progress.
   Good: bubbles, nice sour taste/smell, vege colors becoming less vibrant.
   Bad: signs of mold, slime, signs of airlock failure causing excessive brown oxidation, rotten smell.
7. Once it has fermented to your taste, transfer from fermentation jar into smaller spare jar(s) and store in fridge.  Note that it might continue to get more sour in the fridge but only at a very slow rate.

Its early days but we are now seeing a number of tech companies launching their own Mastodon instances in the last few weeks.  Not so much the "big" techs just yet... maybe the "medium" techs - pun intended.

This includes Medium, Mozilla, and Flipboard.

Flipboard

Welcome to Flipboard on Mastodon. A place for our community of curators and enthusiasts to inform and inspire each other. If you’d like to join please request an invitation via the sign-up page.

Mastodon hosted on flipboard.social

Mastodon

The social network of the future: No ads, no corporate surveillance, ethical design, and decentralization! Own your data with Mastodon!

Mastodon hosted on mozilla.social

me.dm by Medium.com

Ideas and information to deepen your understanding of the world. Run by the folks at Medium.

Mastodon hosted on me.dm

Each allow login only via account credentials from the respective existing user accounts, which means you can't actually create a standalone Mastodon account on those servers on its own, you actually need to create for example a Firefox account to log into mozilla.social, or have a Medium account to log into me.dm.

Many of these companies seem to be keeping low key for now as they trial their instance.  There is indeed a slight "beta" quality to them, with limited users, stock Mastodon and minor customization.

What could the big boys moving in mean for Mastodon, ActivityPub and the wider Fediverse?

Pros:

• Adds legitimacy to Mastodon, ActivityPub and the wider Fediverse, in the eyes of the average person.
• Seemingly "legit" new servers to join, from big brand names, which might seem less intimidating to average people (e.g. the old "why do I need to choose an instance?" question), increasing user base of Mastodon.
• The more people join, the more seriously ActivityPub will be taken, as a true ubiquitous W3C endorsed standard, along side email and HTTP.
• For existing users of those services, they don't need to create another account... no small thing given the friction of having to "OMG, choose a server!?!?" that many new users suffer.
• Potential for a good default experience for new users (e.g. on Mediums instance, it could by default import your existing list of writers you follow).
• So far all of these instances appear to be mainly vanilla Mastodon, integrating with the Fediverse as per normal, and do not yet seem to have a motive to become siloed.
• Such instances may be more reliable and performant than some of the smaller instances (or even big ones... run by teams of one), being backed by a team employed by a big company.
• Mastodon falling under a GPL license means that anyone hosting must disclose source, which for now, keeps hosts somewhat more honest.

Cons:

• Login is for existing user account holders only. This is understandable but also limiting.  This also essentially links your Mastodon activity to your existing account, so not only are you are less anonymous, presumably your activity on their server is far more valuable to the host.
• Personal Speculation: these instances may be "beta" quality for now vs existing long running instances, given the long years of experience of existing admins, including living through the usage spikes caused by great exodus from Twitter.
• Currently each instance seems to be using fairly stock standard Mastodon, but I'm sure they will increasingly add their own branding and tweaks at minimum. However they might start to modify the original intent and design of the app. This might be both good or bad, e.g. useful features vs adding monetization, clickbaity algorithms, agenda pushing, or ads (e.g. Truth Social 👎).  You can of course still chose to access the server using a different client (as long as its API is open).
• Eventually some of these companies may develop their own closed source ActivityPub service from scratch avoiding the GPL licensing of Mastodon.  In this case, there is a lot less limit to what they can get away with while still being a part of the Fediverse.  At that point they will try to lock in users to keep using their semi-closed system.
• Potential contagion from the "Dead Internet"? Big-tech interest could lead to a flood of annoying bots, clickbait and algorithmic AI garbage into the Fediverse. The good news is that there is a very high degree of control which should allow individual users and instances to keep it under control.
• These companies could decide to pull the plug at any time the instance no longer serves their interests.

What your your thoughts?  So far I think the more the merrier, it gives people options if they want it.  I think its inevitable too.  Just like many big-techs provide their own @big-tech-domain.com email account hosting for users (email being the original widely-used federated service), we may well see them provide Mastodon or other ActivityPub service hosting as well.

All this may ultimately lead to a widespread, less toxic, algorithm riddled and siloed social media experience for all.  At least in the short term... watch this space.

A float tank offers a way to relax and meditate free from sense distractions, by floating on a bath of body temperature salt water (so salty that you float effortlessly), in complete darkness in a sound proof room.  You cannot see, hear, feel, smell or taste anything for up to 90 minutes. 🧖

I had done a couple of 60 minute sessions about 8 years ago, but this time I decided to try 90 minutes.  I am glad I did as the time tends to pass by rather quickly while the senses are deprived of stimulation.

Before the session I had a moderate expectation that the session would be relaxing with the chance to go deeper into meditation and gain profound spiritual experience.  It had been many years since I last tried floating at the beginning of my spiritual awakening, and I remembered it to be a deeply relaxing experience.

During the float I experienced a nice sense of relaxation and clear mindedness.  Many moments of peace and stillness.  It was nice.  Nothing hugely profound or deeply relaxing, and in fact I remember the first couple floats many years ago to be a lot more pleasurable and relaxing in comparison.  I later came to realize that this was a sign of good progress in my life, as I will soon explain.

At the end of the float I sat with some tea, feeling perfectly content, and with a meditative mind, reflected on my experience.

I already have peace. I already have happiness.

This was the key insight that arose.

After coming a long way along an apparent "spiritual path" it's easy to take the path too seriously, forgetting that it too is illusory, and believe its all about getting increasingly blissful and experiencing new levels of profound spiritual experience or wisdom.

For the first time the cracks appeared in this entire notion of "spiritual path" and "achieving bliss", and I came to truly see that I already have peace and happiness... in fact it seems that I already always had it.  The kind of peace that is talked about in scriptures - it's never created nor destroyed. ∞

The thing is that there is a habit of turning away from this inherent peace, distracted by some new shiny thing, or a story in the mind about how things should really be or sometimes even a promise of some new "deep spiritual knowledge".  On a spiritual path, it's easy to form a habit of seeking something that doesn't need to be sought.  It just needs to be turned towards repeatedly, instead of turning toward distractions.  This contentedness is so close, so simple and so basic that we just ignore it, like the air in front of our face.  I am instantly content and happy if only I don't turn away from the contentedness and happiness that is already always there.

I think the reason that this float session did not feel as viscerally relaxing as the ones I did 8 years ago, is because nowadays I am already relaxed.  There is no more everyday struggle and stress to contrast to, as there was in the past.  This is why I feel that the apparent mildness of my more recent spiritual experiences compared to the past, have become a sign of progress in my life (though at the same time I don't take this as a hard and fast rule or expectation either).

Distraction, pleasure and stimulation are often not worth it

This was a related insight that came up.

It was much easier to see the peace and happiness which is always here, when I am not heavily stimulated and distracted.  This includes "pleasant" stimulation.

In fact it seems that such temporary pleasure tends to reinforce the non-conducive idea that happiness comes from some other place than whats already here.  Additionally, the extent to which I indulge in pleasure is equally the extent to which I will indulge in pain.  That is unavoidable.

A week after the float I found myself increasingly turning away from some usual sources of apparent pleasure like watching videos, scrolling the Internet and online shopping.  I'm still not an absolute monk about it but I more clearly question whether certain harmless pleasures are really worth it, given these newly observed downsides. Naturally I do not chase them as much as before.

Don't just copy me, realize for yourself

I'm not actually suggesting that everyone can find instant happiness by simply turning away from their usual pleasures and staring into space.  It might be just what you need right now, or it might not be.  Only you know for sure.

I am not a real monk, I still live an average life 90% of the time.  The above works for me because I realized it.  It's also what my mind and body needed right now at my stage in life, after years of chasing and stimulation (which is honestly a necessary prerequisite... don't skip this step 😜).  If my words did not induce a similar realization within you, enough to utterly convince you of the same insights, then it may not be what you need right now.  You may also see the long term wisdom in it, but at the same time you might feel that you are not ready yet, and that's OK.

This is why it's far more important to have your own spiritual practice (or its equivalent) that helps you unravel your own mind and gives you the insight that you need right now, rather than trying to directly copy anything I do or say, in the hope that its going to make you magically happy.  Though I would still encourage you to give it a shot and see if it works out.  If not, you can always come back to it later.

Just being

At the end of the day, it does seem more like I am "just being" rather than chasing something, including chasing "spiritual progress".  So I will naturally explore more in this direction.  The inner heart leads the way.  Perhaps I was always "just being" all this time... but I just didn't notice it 😉.

I hope you enjoyed my writing.  I would love to hear your own diverse insights and experiences, so feel free to comment below or drop me a message 🙏.

How do we protect ourselves against being fooled by fake online social media accounts and conversely prove to the others that our account is the real deal?

Twitters rather limited solution is simply to make users buy a blue tick next to their name. Does having a blue verified badge next your name on a siloed platform seriously mean you are the real deal?  Given that anyone can get a badge just by buying it makes it a pretty weak way to verify.

On top of that, just because someones Twitter is verified, how do we additionally know their other true accounts that belong to the same person elsewhere?  YouTube, Reddit, website, email, Telegram etc.  YouTube and others have their own separate verification.  Who knows how many other siloed services will want you to pay to get weak verification by a centralized authority.  Not to mention that it is hard to create a private "avatar" identity, as some platforms will ask for a lot of information including a phone number and billing info, and the platform can take away verification any time.

Ultimately a more powerful approach is a Decentralized Identity Proof

And we can make it proven using cryptography (and no, we DO NOT need any "blockchain" or "Web3/4/5/6" to achieve any this either!)

Based on the same old tech that has existed for decades (OpenPGP public/private key encryption 🔐), there are ways you can create a verified online identity, proven beyond doubt - including the option to be either under your real name OR a privacy-preserving avatar of your creation.

DIY Profile website

Lets start with a simple but less trustworthy method which doesn't actually need any cryptography: build your own website and post your profile there, with the links to all your siloed accounts.  Basically like posting a bunch of social badges on your website - much like what I do at the top bar of this website (just for convenience, but not real proof as we will see later).

Here is one example of a person called 'Chuso' who posts their account links on their own dedicated profile page:

This is nice, but is this completely trustworthy?  Technically, anyone could create their own website, and post links to anyone's various siloed accounts and fraudulently claim them for their own! Is there a way to verify ownership of the accounts listed in this page?

Keybase

One way to have a profile page that is truly verified beyond doubt, is to use cryptographic identity proofs.  This involves generating private and public keys, and then using the public key to prove that a certain account, email address, website etc belongs to the same person.  One of the easiest ways for anyone to do this is to create a free profile on Keybase and then link all of your siloed accounts from there.  Keybase has ways to verify ownership of many types of accounts using your key.

Luckily 'Chuso' also has a Keybase account, so we can go there and verify whether the same person actually owns all the accounts that they have listed on their self-made profile website:

Again, this verification is done using cryptographic keys, NOT by paying someone money!  So it is more trustworthy, meaningful and cannot be easily taken away (well.. as long as you obey Keybase T&C).

Keybase is a very friendly way to create a proven online profile, with additional features for securely messaging and collaborating.  However it is still a for-profit central authority and Keybase are likely building some kind of database of user activity, or finding some other way to make money out of this which you might not like.  In fact, Keybase is now owned by the public company Zoom 🚨.  There are indeed rumors that the Keybase team was "aquihired" by Zoom to help them with their security fiasco at the time, and there might not even be much future development of Keybase.  Additionally, the server side of Keybase is not open source, so cannot be completely trusted nor verified publicly (though its client apps are open source).

Keyoxide - Decentralized option

Keyoxide is an alternative to Keybase.  It is a bit more difficult to initially set up, requiring use of terminal commands 🤓. It is also self-custodial, completely open source and has the option to be decentralized, since anyone can host their own instance.  The most common instance you can use is keyoxide.org official.

The beauty of Keyoxide is that you own your own identity and can take it anywhere.  You can tie your identity to an email address and/or a public key fingerprint.  It is self-custodial so the private key is generated on your computer and stays on you computer (remember to back it up! > /home/username/.gnupg/), and is locally encrypted by a password (don't forget this password!), and you should never let anyone see your private key (keep it encrypted and don't upload anywhere, not even to Keyoxide!).  Even though it is self-custodial, worst case if you lose your private key files or password, you will just need to generate new ones and link up all your accounts and sites all over again.

Here is our friend Chuso again, who also has posted their same public key and a long list of proven accounts on Keyoxide 😎:

Only the bearer of the secret private key that matches the public key listed on the page will be able to update data on this page, and verify accounts against it - this is crytpographically guaranteed... not centrally dictated based on whether someone paid money.

I like how each verified account can be clicked on and details of how the account has been proven can be examined ☑️.  It is also possible to encrypt a message to send to this person, which only they can decrypt using their private key - though slightly less user friendly than Keybase DM's.  Additionally a cryptographically signed message that the person sent you can be verified using the Verify Signature button.  All of this without relying on a trusted central authority (though here we are still technically using one for convenience instead of self-hosting) nor custody.  Personally I went with Keyoxide as my preferred online identity proof as I am experienced enough to set it up.  If you click the verification icon at the top right of this page, you can see my keyoxide verified page.

How do you get started with Keyoxide?

The official website is not totally helpful to a newbie, though the docs are quite good and detailed for a more technical or patient person . I would recommend the simplest way to get into it is to use keyoxidizer, which is a wizard script for Unix systems that will securely create your private/public keys, and then walk you through getting all your accounts verified.  You can also use it to manage everything in the future by simply running the script again with your email address and password.  Once you have created the keys and uploaded, you can view or share your personal Keyoxide page by going to https://keyoxide.org/[your email address]. All of your verified accounts will be publicly listed here.

Also note that your keys have a set expiry time (usually recommended is 2 years), which you can choose when creating them.  It can later be renewed, but you need to remember to do this manually (good idea to set a calendar reminder).  The keyoxidizer tool will tell you about this when you create a key.

The keyoxidizer tool is a fast way to get into creating your proofs on Keyoxide, but it is currently limited to a small number of account types.  Here is a full list of supported accounts on Keyoxide.  Some require more complicated manual processes to add them so you will need to dive into the docs and perhaps look at using a tool like gpg or Kleopatra.

Bonus: Create a verified avatar image

A great way to create a verified avatar image that automatically shows up on your Keyoxide page, is to use libravatar - a more private and self-hostable alternative to Gravatar.  Simply create a libravatar account with the same email address as your Keyoxide account, upload an image and wait a few minutes till it shows up in your profile page.

Sometimes it feels as if thoughts are just coming into the mind, and we cant stop them, we cant control them.  Its no wonder many beginners are quick to believe that they cannot clear their mind or that it is impossible.  It is half true... you cannot clear your mind by doing activity or attempting to control it through force, because...

Clarity is achieved only by ceasing activity.

If we look very closely, we might begin to notice the kinds of habitual mind activity that tend to proliferate thought.  Some of this activity we claim that we are "doing", others we claim are "happening to us", often based on whether we think the activity is positive or negative respectively.

You could say that meditation is not an action, but a negation of action. Particularly mental ones.

Here are some habitual actions of the mind that I have noticed:

Judgement and non-acceptance

• Judgements about what is good or bad, correct or incorrect, supposed to or not supposed to happen.
• Judging thoughts as they arise instead of simply seeing and accepting them.
• Resisting, controlling or trying to "kill" or "repel" thoughts.
• Not accepting rest.

Identification and Involvement

• Becoming involved or heavily interested in thoughts - thinking about the present.
• Paying excessive attention to thoughts, and not enough to the empty spaces between them.
• Pursuing the past or inviting the future.

Expectation

• Strongly identifying with an opinion.
• Expectation or anticipation of some particular result or experience.

Fixed Belief

• Fixed belief that thinking is always very necessary and helpful.
• Fixed belief that thinking is very annoying and unhelpful.
• Fixed belief that activity is required and always better than non-activity.

Thinking about (conceptualizing)

• Thinking about thoughts
• Thinking about emptiness or meditation, or other related concepts instead of simply experiencing.
• Conceptually examining rather than directly examining through clear awareness.
• Thinking about the end of the meditation session, or how long it has been.

It's a big list! Contemplate on some of these and see if you can notice them in your own mind.

When we learn to discern these mental habits and let them go, the mind naturally quietens for the moment.  Whatever thoughts remain are calmly and clearly noticed.  They too effortlessly dissolve when ignored.  The infinite clarity that always exists at the base of everything is finally revealed, no longer obscured by mental activity.